Treasury slaps down Mandy

Earlier Peter Mandelson confirmed that this year's comprehensive spending review is off. "I believe that the Chancellor has made that judgement," he told the Today programme. Paul Waugh reports the Treasury's reaction thus: "The Chancellor makes the decisions, no matter what Peter Mandelson says, and no decisions have been made". To my ear it sounded like an uncharacteristic slip by the First First Lord, a statement of the obvious that hadn't yet been announced. Which won't be how Aliastair Darling sees it, especially if he's read Jackie Ashley's intriguing claim that Gordon Brown now relies for advice on a Gang of Four made up of Lord M, Ed Balls, Shaun Woodward and Tessa Jowell.